topic Disable Wi-Fi6 at WLAN level in SmartZone and Virtual SmartZone

Disable Wi-Fi6 at WLAN level

bobby_khaira — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 11:27:13 GMT

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if I can get some help with this Wi-Fi6 "Enable" feature.

Do I need to tick on the box or untick on the box to make sure there is no issue with Wi-Fi5 clients connecting to Wi-Fi6 AP? I feel that the language bit unclear, at least for me 😞

Do I untick or tick to disable Wi-Fi6 at together at the WLAN level? This is regardless of vSZ and Unleashed controller.

" Use this feature to allow some legacy Wi-Fi5 clients with out of date drivers to inter-operate with a Wi-Fi6 AP. Use this feature if you cannot ensure that all client drivers on the network are up to date and free of bugs. Wi-Fi6 clients connecting to this WLAN on a Wi-Fi6 AP will not be able to use Wi-Fi6 features such as OFDMA and TWT"

Re: Disable Wi-Fi6 at WLAN level

Vineet_nejwala — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 03:14:54 GMT

Hi @bobby_khaira

You can disable/enable 802.11ax on per AP radio band basis and not WLAN. Below article for better understanding and steps to disable 11ax.

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/articles/000009669

Best Regards

Vineet

Re: Disable Wi-Fi6 at WLAN level

DarrelRhodes — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 10:56:17 GMT

Hi @bobby_khaira ,

Just to add to Vineet's comments:

Wi-Fi 6 is designed to be fully backward-compatible with all previous Wi-Fi standards, all the way back to 802.11b and there shouldn't be any problems installing a mixed environment both on the infrastructure side and the clients.

However in the early days of Wi-Fi 6 deployments; we identified some clients had issues when connecting to a Wi-Fi 6 enabled network, usually down to legacy drivers.

The 'disable Wi-Fi 6' option was implemented largely for the legacy devices to be able to connect to the network to update their Wi-Fi drivers before allowing Wi-Fi 6 to be re-enabled to enjoy all the performance benefits it brings to the client experience.

I hope that helps clarify.

Best,
Darrel.

Re: Disable Wi-Fi6 at WLAN level

bobby_khaira — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 11:11:50 GMT

Thanks you Vineet, Darrel for your response and feedback. Much apricated. It is clear to me now when to enable / disable Wi-Fi6 option under WLAN.